Round after round, the two Houston-area middle-schoolers kept the audience spellbound Wednesday as they carefully sounded out the obscure words they were given and put all the right letters in all the right places.

But after 30 hard-fought rounds, it was the three-year champion, 12-year-old Anjay Ajodha, who sat down in tears while 13-year-old Brian Ajieren was crowned the area's best student speller of the year.

Brian, a seventh-grader at Westbrook Intermediate in the Clear Creek Independent School District, could hardly believe his fortune after correctly spelling the word "peripteral" to win the Houston Chronicle Spelling Bee.

"Anjay was just so good. He is so good. I couldn't believe it," said Brian, who will now compete in the National Spelling Bee in late May.

Meanwhile, Anjay, who misspelled "bimillenary," said he knew the minute he put two "n's" in the word that he had made a mistake. While the judges reviewed the tape to make sure he had erred, Anjay sat down in his chair and sobbed.

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For Anjay, an eighth-grader at Pearland Junior High South, the loss was especially hard because this was the last year he could compete. He will enter high school next year, and the competition is open only to students in the second through eighth grades.

This year's spelling bee drew 53 competitors from 39 Houston-area counties. All but Anjay and Brian were disqualified by the 11th round.